“Wish for 2015: mindful common sense,” The Colorado Springs Business Journal, January 2-8, 2015, 15.

ONE WISH FOR 2015: MINDFUL COMMON SENSE

When CBS’ “60 Minutes” covers the benefits of meditation for business creativity and productivity (at Google), we know mindfulness has gone mainstream. So much so, that on every self-respecting urban corner you can find a yoga studio or meditation center.

The Americanization of Eastern practices comes at a price. Gone are the philosophical commitments and the aspiration to transcendental other-worldliness that accompany these practices. In their stead, a heavy pragmatic diet of market-driven “measured outcomes” is offered in hourly sessions, with or without sweating.

Can you measure the benefits of mindfulness? It’s as ludicrous as measuring the outcome of college education. In both cases, only on one’s deathbed can one fully appreciate the benefits, the gifts that come with being mindful and/or educated.

The business-minded critic laughs at the thought of waiting till the dusk of life to reflect on one’s quality of life. He who has the most toys wins, no? Income and wealth are likewise easy ways of measuring and comparing oneself to others.

What would it look like to measure one’s quality of life in terms of mindfulness and education, that is, enlightenment? The cynic would answer: just see how long it takes for you to answer a question or make a decision; the longer the time interval, the more contemplative.

But of course this measurement is flawed because slowness in itself connotes nothing more than being slow: some are slow because they really think deeply before answering a question or making a decision, while others are just cognitively slow. How can we tell the difference?

Perhaps testimonies could do the trick: just ask the person what kind of slowness is being practiced. But as the psychologist Daniel Kahneman reminds us, we are prone to self-deception. In short, we can’t be trusted.

Maybe we don’t have to wait till we are on our deathbed to be reflective. Why can’t we actually practice mindfulness daily, and every time we are expected to answer a question or make a decision, we can become self-conscious of the fact that we are being mindful in the process.

Instead of taking stock of our life only once before we part from this world, we can do it all the time. Some meditate, some pray for the same reason—to stop the hustle and bustle of the daily grind and detach from small annoyances (and big ones) so as to see the big picture more clearly.

No wonder that we are prone to make New Year resolutions, promise to change our life. These promises are usually prompted by reflecting on what we did wrong in the past year, what we think is changeable, and what deserves our attention in the future.

Our reflection on past experiences is a sort of mindfulness that forces us to be honest with ourselves, self-police ourselves. Even when family and loved ones correct us, it’s up to us to act. This kind of mindfulness we cannot delegate or outsource; we can’t pay a yoga instructor to do what only we can accomplish.

Since political economists and businesspeople alike have historically claimed that their theories and principles are based on common-sense rather than speculation, they can endorse the kind of mindfulness advocated here. They believe that how we act and what we do in fact reflect on who we are.

You can’t be a “good guy,” as is commonly said about clients and vendors, partners and fellow-workers, unless you show it or prove it in your everyday work-ethic. Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words, right?

If this is so, then mindful common-sense should be easy to accomplish. It’s not about Americanizing meditation practices, or turning board-meeting and sale-calls into awkward moments of silence.

Instead, mindfulness forces you to anticipate your own reactions and those of others, allows you to anticipate unintended consequences, and ensures that you see a continuous thread running from your past to your future, where the present is the only place you really occupy.

It makes sense to slow down, to think more carefully and critically about what you are about to say or do; it makes sense to retract a statement if wrong, and to compliment others when they say something smart or do something well. It also makes sense for you to be kind to yourself and count your blessings—they are all too many to recount.

As 2015 is about to begin, I implore everyone to be more philosophically-minded. It’s easier to do than you think; it’s more rewarding than anything else you regularly do; and if you practice it often enough, it’ll become second nature. Happy New Year! 

Raphael Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com

“Let’s use common sense,” The Colorado Springs Business Journal, June 22 - 28, 2012, 19.

COMMON SENSE

Even the greatest logicians and scientists agree that the most sophisticated formulae can be explained in simple, common sense terms to anyone. If we agree that A is different from not A, or that if A leads to B, and B leads to C, that A therefore leads to C, we can communicate with each other. According to Laplace, “the theory of probabilities is at bottom nothing but common sense reduced to calculus.”

Communication between business partners or between the Mayor and Council is then something that can be achieved. In simple terms, without the aid of experts and specialists, any two people can exchange views and respond to those of others, even when disagreeing with each other.

This was the central idea that governed the writing of our founding fathers in regards to political life conducted by farmers and merchants. Benjamin Franklin warned against paying high salaries to congressional representatives so as not to attract professional politicians.

A farmer can understand the logic of an argument and see through its fallacies; a housewife knows do discern marketing fraud just as well as any expert; and the local retailer figures out quite easily if local politicians are bamboozling him or her. It’s really not that complicated, if you pay attention to common sense.

When esteemed colleagues in the academy tell me that what they work on is too complex to explain to someone like myself, I always encourage them to try. I can only imagine what they say to their unsuspecting students. And when they actually try, two things commonly happen.

Either their explanations make perfect sense; I then understand exactly what they are working on, because they indeed know their “stuff.” Or they fumble terribly, confusing themselves along the way, and ending up so frustrated that they give up. At this point I know they are full of it, and really camouflage their own pretenses with fancy words or formulae. Where is their common sense?

What’s true of the stuffy academic world is true of the public sphere as well. When economists fail to give a simple answer to the question: what should be done to stimulate the economy?, they only prove that theirs is indeed the dismal science or not a science at all. They are clueless, despite fancy computer programs that process mounds of data.

When politicians give similar vague answers to questions, such as: should we intervene in Syria now?, they betray their own insincerities. Of course geopolitical variables come into play: what about the Russians and the Chinese? What about Turkey and Iran? Can we afford a military engagement in another theater? But the complexity of the situation alone doesn’t justify not giving an answer at all.

What common sense forces us to do is get beyond the fancy wordings of our arguments and dissertations, and simply convey the values that guide us. Common sense can tease them out from the complex double-talk politicians have mastered over the years. Just tell us that you believe in personal responsibility and therefore want no government intervention, and we can get it.

But common sense also exacts a price: you must be consistent. You can’t say that you want the government off your back but then ask it to handle your retirement in the form of Social Security and Medicare. When Bush tried to privatize Social Security, even his fellow Republicans were not pleased (because of their constituents of senior citizens), and he had to give up on his initiative.

In some bizarre ways, no American president has been able to be consistent in the application of his ideology—compromises abound. So, why harp on local politicians and their inadequacies? Why chide the Council president, for example, who wonders why I don’t like him. Guess what, Mr. Hente, I don’t know you well enough to form a personal opinion about you. My complaint is always philosophical, that is, one rooted in the common sense idea of a Social Contract. Have you used it lately in your dealings with CSU?

Common sense tells me that there ought to be a division of labor between the Mayor and Council; it also tells me that each ought to be responsible for overseeing various government entities. That’s simple enough. What’s not so simple is how they perform their oversight jobs. No, expertise isn’t essential, but knowing what you vote on is: read the documents before you vote! As one can observe from CSU’s board meetings, unanimous votes are routine. Should they be?

Perhaps Emerson was right when he lamented that “common sense is not so common.” Let’s prove him wrong and find common ground in common sense for responsible governance.

Raphael Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS who teaches the use of common sense. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com